[AllenP]

So I'm looking to get a (cheap) portable amp for my AKG k271s. Right now I'm thinking:

1. headsix (I've heard it's very detailed and neutral -- and that's what I love about my k271s)
2. total airhead (super cheap and has convenient switches for crossfeed and high/low gain)
3. diy pimeta (definitely the most fun)

That said, there are a couple of things that I would like to do with the amp that are outside of normal usage... would anyone have any experience with these uses?

• Amping a bass guitar -- It would be nice if I could go guitar shopping and have a consistent, neutral, detailed amp and set of headphones with me. This way I wouldn't get into the problem of using a different bass amp at each store and not knowing if it was the guitar that sounded better or the different amp.
• Decreasing volume -- When at work, I sometimes like to have super-quiet music in the background, so I can focus on what I'm doing. I find my iPod Mini doesn't go quiet enough and would like to use an amp to decrease the volume lower.

I know those two uses are radically different, so that's why the high/low gain switch interests me... but will it be enough? Should I just build a custom pimeta with a switch to allow me to do what I'd like with it? Or should I just avoid the whole double-use thing?

 

[92135011]

does the bass have an active pickup? If it don't...then you wont be able to get anywhere

 

[Nuwidol]

The headsix volume pot has a channel inbalance at very low volumes.

Can be very annoying.

 

[royalcrown]

AFAIK it's impossible to have a bass amp and a headphone amp. Instrument amps are designed to amp from an extremely high impedance, higher than any headphone I know, and ridiculously low current levels, whereas conventional amps are the exact opposite (amping relatively low impedance loads with high current). Of course, this doesn't matter if the bass has an active pickup, for then you're just amping what basically amounts to a normal line level load.

If you're interested, thinkgeek has a guitar amp with headphone output that you can buy separately, it comes in a portable format (altoids tin a la cmoy amps): ThinkGeek :: Mint Tin Pocket Guitar Amp

As for making the volume lower, as long as the amp is designed with a lower gain in mind the volume control should give you lower volume, or at the very least more control over the volume range compared to an iPod.

 

[AllenP]

Cool, thanks -- I'll look into getting a separate amp for bass guitar use and probably make my own pimeta just to start out with.